TALKING TECH

Fast and frequent are keys to Snap/mitú success

Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Look out Telemundo and Univision, mitú is creeping up on you.

The online network and production company aimed at the fast-growing Latino mobile viewer is on a roll, with more than 760 million monthly video views on Facebook, YouTube and growing, thanks to a new alliance with Snap.

Sign on the front door to mitú's production studio, where Snapchat videos are produced for the platform's Discover section.

The mitú channel brings a Latin flavor to content that usually has a different focus, and since its December launch, video views on the Snapchat app have already surpassed mitú’s YouTube channel. (Facebook is still No. 1.) Mitú's programming is in English language.

Being on Snap “exposes us to a larger group of people who may not have been familiar with the kind of content we were creating,” says Rhoades Rader, mitú’s chief content officer. “We’ve seen an uptick” in views.

Snap, which intends to raise $3 billion in a highly anticipated IPO in March, has a highly coveted “Discover” area of the app where more than 30 established brands like People, Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed and others produce short-form programming. The shorts appeal to young viewers, with a revenue share split between Snap and the brands.

Mitu's focus on Latino youth paying off

Snap has a huge hold on young viewers, reaching 160 million users daily, and generating some 10 billion daily video views.

By bringing mitú to Snap, the company felt validated, says co-founder and president Beatriz Acevedo.

“We tend to be sometimes sent to the back of the building when they hear the word Latino or multicultural. We say please stop doing that, we deserve and should be at the this table,” she says.

Annie Leal oversees the mitu Discover channel on Snapchat

Adds Annie Leal, the product manager at mitú who oversees the Snap channel: “We’re able to take a Latino point of view and show our culture, what we think and the way we want to be represented.”

Mitú declined to discuss financial arrangements with Snap or specific numbers of views generated there. Snap declined comment,

The mitú channel has light features — “Celebs you didn’t know were Latino” mention Zoe Saldana and Bruno Mars — and serious short videos on a “Afro-Latina Muslim.”

Leal says working on Snapchat features is the most intense production work of all they do at mitú, since it’s 12 to 15 pieces of content daily.

The videos and articles have to be fast-paced, topical and produced in vertical fashion, so when mobile users hold their phones upright, they’re not urged to move it.

What doesn’t work?

Content that doesn’t speak to the mitú audience, “because it looks and feels inauthentic,” Leal  says. “Content that truly connects with our audience (by being in-culture), is what keeps viewers coming back for more. With Snapchat, content is short and concise, so we only have a split second to connect with a viewer."

The lion’s share of mitú content is viewed on Facebook, and it’s produced in horizontal mode, “and doesn’t seem as personal,” she adds. “The videos we cut for Snapchat feels like we’re with these people right there, and that’s the fun of it.”

Mitú has reaped some $43 million in investment, from companies like media giant Verizon, ad agency WPP and AwesomenessTV, which, like Mitú, is a digital network focused on the mobile youth audience. The company has 120 diverse staffers, mostly in the Los Angeles area.

Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham on Twitter, @jeffersongraham and subscribe to the daily #TalkingTech podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.